September 29, 2025

Fall 2025 NextGen Newsletter — Project News and Updates

The Fall 2025 NextGen Newsletter is the first issue of the Student Phase of the NextGen project. Newsletters will deliver news and updates about how NextGen is transforming student and employee experiences systemwide.

Each edition is your connection to the progress, people, and purpose behind NextGen. You’ll get a look at how this systemwide transformation is unfolding – from the big milestones to the behind-the-scenes work that’s shaping the future of our colleges and universities.

Student Phase Update

This summer, the NextGen project teams made strides in advancing the digital transformation of Minnesota State. 

Workday Student

In the Align and Confirm stage, teams worked to configure a prototype of Workday Student – a first look at how functionality will reflect the needs of both colleges and universities. The prototype provides a way to validate student-focused business processes and see how Workday functionality will serve all Minnesota State learners. Additionally, configuring the Workday Student prototype has included converting student data from two of our institutions, Riverland Community College and Minnesota State University Moorhead.

At the same time, progress continues in the Plan stage, where teams gather detailed information on student-related processes across Minnesota State. These findings ensure future stages of the project reflect how Minnesota State wants to serve students in the years ahead.

Student Worker – Milestone Achieved

The student phase of NextGen includes configuring Workday for student workers. Significant progress has been made on the Student Worker implementation. Comprehensive discovery sessions were completed across all 33 colleges and universities, representing a critical milestone in this strategic workforce management project. These discovery sessions provided invaluable insights into the current operational framework and revealed the intricate relationships between student employment processes, financial aid coordination, and academic departmental workflows.

This thorough assessment positions the team to develop a robust Workday solution that addresses the unique complexities of our multicampus student workforce while ensuring seamless integration across all stakeholder departments. This foundational work demonstrates a commitment to supporting the long-term strategic objectives for student employment and campuswide workforce optimization.

Companion Projects

Companion projects are third-party or custom business solutions that fulfill a business need left open by the current student information system (ISRS). This may include software, forms, outsourced services, or reports. Workday functionality may replace some existing business solutions. Planning is steadily progressing. Current efforts focus on forming alignment groups and conducting a systemwide survey to refine 44 potential alignment areas down to a targeted 4–12. Alignment work will take place from October 2025 through February 2026, with advisory groups set to form this fall. Additional planning milestones include releasing the NextGen Business Solution Inventory (NBSI) version 2.0 app in fall 2025, validating the NBSA data set at each institution, and launching a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) request for proposal (RFP) in early fall 2025.

Reporting

The reporting team has begun discovery, where they will gather reporting priorities, needs, and requirements across the system. This effort will be ongoing throughout the fall semester to ensure a thorough and inclusive assessment. Importantly, all colleges and universities will be included in these reporting activities to ensure that the resulting Reporting Inventory and Reporting Strategy reflect systemwide needs. 

Looking ahead, December marks a big milestone as the project moves into the Align and Confirm Validate stage. During this stage, the prototype configuration will be shared, refined, and validated through a series of Prototype Review Workshops in which teams from each college and university will participate. The momentum is building—and each stage brings us one step closer to a modern, unified system that will transform how we serve Minnesota State students. 

Workday System Release – 2025R2

On September 20, Workday released 2025R2, the second of its twice-yearly system updates, delivering enhancements that improved functionality, accessibility, and security across the platform. Notable updates with this release include Quick Links now available on the Workday homepage, allowing users to easily request absences like vacation, sick time, or sabbaticals.

Extended Care Transition for HCM and Finance

The end of September marks the conclusion of extended care, which is the period of Workday support provided to Minnesota State following our go-live for Workday HCM and Finance in July of 2024. Administrators and staff in both human resources and finance have been working very hard to stabilize core business operations and to prepare for this transition from implementation to long-term support and maintenance of Workday.

Upcoming NextGen Newsletters

Look for upcoming NextGen newsletters each semester next year in February, June, and October, which will include updates on Workday Student and Student Worker implementation, future Workday release updates, and news on additional initiatives and projects that support the goals of NextGen.